BRIG.-GEN. TURNER ASHBY.

CHAPTER LIII.

Definition of Chivalry.-Its peculiarities and virtues.-A notable picture of chivalric courage.-Turner Ashby's family.-His early life.-He raises a company of cavalry. His famous white steed.-Death of his brother.--The devotion of Ashby.Habits and appearance of the cavalier.-Purity of his life.-Adventure with the enemy at Winchester.-Ashby on the retreat from Kernstown.-Chased by the enemy. His horse killed.--Promoted a Brigadier.-His limited military education. A scene around the camp-fires-Dramatic death of Ashby.-Gen. Jackson's tribute to his memory.-Honours to the deceased cavalier.-His place in history.

THERE is a sense of inferiourity among certain men, which gladly revenges itself by miscalling, or caricaturing whatever is superiour to them. To certain low and grovelling minds it is a great contentment and delight to represent men more famous than themselves as accidents; to describe great conquerors as felons; to write down military commanders as murderers on a large scale; to designate virtues in which they have no share as affectations and shams; and to style the chivalry which they do not possess, the splutter of bullies.

It is well to define here that very peculiar quality of manhood, which we entitle chivalry, and of which we claim that the late war has given on the part of the South, peculiar proofs and examples. The term, perhaps, has been much abused and misused; but we recognize in it a well-defined idea, and a basis of estimate of men, sufficiently distinct and characteristic. To be sure, chivalry as an institution of the eleventh century has been dead some time ago; but, as a sentiment, it has fought its way against much of the utilitarian spirit of modern times, and yet survives in some parts of the world.

We have no hesitation in naming the most characteristic element of chivalry, a passion for danger--a love of danger for itself. There are men who enjoy the emotions, the thrill, the sublime intoxication of danger. Some court it in the forces of nature, and are known as a peculiar sort of adventurous travellers. But it is the characteristic and office of chivalry to court danger in the arms of men, and in the character of champion of a principle. It is not the animal desire of fight; the brutal consciousness of power impelled to exercise itself; it is the sentiment of championship, and the pure grand desire of the emotion of danger in the combat of man against man. In such a disposition, there is a natural fondness for single combat-the duello. It is to be remarked, indeed, that chivalry is not gregarious, and prefers always the individual risk and enterprise-the clear-cut front of man to man-to the mixed dangers of a general battle.

What is sentimental in chivalry quickly allies itself with positive virtues. The true knight has an unfailing scorn of all under-handed means. He observes truth with the rigour of the saint; his regard for it not being necessarily moral, but sentimental--because to lie is cowardly. He is unwilling to admit any trace of malice or revenge in his adventure; and to the vanquished foe his magnanimity is instant, and his generosity unbounded. He is in constant search of good causes of contest. He has a ready and tender regard for whatever is weak and unprotected, and shows it especially in his behaviour towards

women.

Here are elements enough to constitute and define a distinct quality of mind. The term, chivalry, has been used in many broad and vague senses, and especially confounded with moral questions. There is certainly a conviction of duty in chivalry; it must have its good cause and its conscientious occasion; but that is not sufficient to characterize it. It is not courage alone. It is not generosity alone. It is not prowess alone. It is not high morality alone. It is a distinct quality, sui generis: a dedication of self, a joy of contest, and, with all, a royal passion for danger. Especially, must we distinguish this rare quality of mind from fanatical fervour; for chivalry, although essentially in the character of champion, goes past the idea it fights for, and finds a second object in the gaudium certaminis, the delight

of contest and danger. If, by this definition, we have narrowed the term from any of its general uses, we have done so justly, and with a view of having this quality of manhood severely separated to itself, and judged on its own merits.

In tracing that series of characters, which in the records of the late war illustrate our subject, we shall find different types and varieties of chivalry. Wade Hampton with his manners severe almost to haughtiness; Henry A. Wise, raging like a lion in battle, or stooping to kiss the cold, mute lips of his dead son; Morgan with his rollicking humour and fondness for practical jokes; the sweet-tempered, pious Ashby, waving his sword over his head with the simple, habitual words, "Follow me," or surrounded by children-scholars in the Sunday school; Forrest with his coarse strength and bad grammar, and Titanic genius; John M. Daniel with meteor pen, the first scholar of America; "Young Pelham," cheering while his body is stricken with death; Churchill Clarke, the Missouri boy, dying like a young martyr in sheets of artillery fire-all these illustrating different ranks and employments, yet agree in the same grand sentiment of championship, the same joy of defiance, and each, in his history, weaves the golden thread and superb mark of chivalry.

In characters such as these the people of the South may find the peculiar ornament of their country, and their youth a model of true glory. The love of glory may be nearly translated as a passion for danger incurred in the cause of right. But the more exact term we have chosen for that disposition of mind is chivalry, so clearly is it marked by a delight in and the positive court of peril. A man may be deeply affected by the justice and merit of some cause; he may make great sacrifices in its name; he may serve it with an iron will; he may pursue it with unconquerable ardour; but it is the chivalric champion who advances beyond what is demanded of him, goes in search of danger and rejoices when he sees it. He who does this is the true knight of modern times; the example of manhood in which justice and romance are beautifully mixed; the rare instance of an epicene nature; an object of regard, which affection seeks to embrace, while admiration crowns; a delight unto himself, and an ornament to any people.

The art of the painter has found many subjects in the late war-its contests, the scenes it traversed, heroic deeds of heroic men. If we had to suggest an impersonation of chivalry which it might catch on its canvas, and by a picture give the best idea of this peculiar quality of manhood, we would take a scene, often described, in the famous life of Turner Ashby of Virginia. It was one of those irregular fights often occurring on the lines of the Potomac in the early periods of the war. A body of the enemy was encamped on the other side of the Potomac, opposite Boteler's mills; they had posted themselves on the bank with long range guns, from which they kept up a prodigious fire. Ashby commanded on the other side of the river a body of raw troops, who were evidently very much affected by the terrific sound of artillery. To reassure his men, and to gratify his love of danger, Ashby advanced, alone, to the bank of the river, and rode his white horse up and down, within point blank-range of the enemy's fire. When the balls were hurtling thickest, he would rein in his horse and stand perfectly still. Abreast to the red crash of the artillery, himself and white steed in defiant poise, he challenged danger like an olden knight. He mocked terrour; he courted peril; he stood still in the face of death, and the blood sang in his veins!

But this picture anticipates our narrative. We propose to give, in its natural order, though briefly, some account of a life which so adorned its age and country-which indeed made Turner Ashby the type of what was most glorious in the late war, and the glass of Southern chivalry.

The ancestral stock of Ashby was well known in Virginia, and did patriotic service in the Revolutionary war, and that of 1812. His grandfather, Captain Jack Ashby, was a man of mark in the day in which he lived. Upon the breaking out of the Revolu

* An anecdote of this person, belonging to the Colonial times of Virginia, is not out of place here, and has been told in his neighbourhood as illustrating the hereditary horsemanship in the Ashby family:

When the news of the disastrous defeat and death of Gen. Braddock reached Fort Loudoun (now Winchester, Virginia), John Ashby was there, and his celebrity as a horseman induced the British commandant of the post to secure his services as bearer of dispatches to the vice-royal governor at Williamsburg. Ashby at once proceeded on his mission, and in an incredibly short time presented himself before the

tion of 1776, he raised a company in his neighbourhood in the upper part of Fauquier. It was attached to the third Virginia regiment, under command of Gen. Marshall. He was in the battles of Brandywine, Germantown, and several other of the most desperately contested fields of the Revolution. From exposure and hardships endured upon the frontiers of Canada, he contracted disease, from which he was never entirely relieved to the day of his death. Four of his sons served in the war of 1812.

The subject of our sketch was the second son of Col. Turner Ashby, a worthy planter of Fauquier county, Virginia. He lost his father at an early age, and he and his several brothers and sisters received their youthful training from a truly pious and intelligent mother, who belonged to the large and influential Green family of that section.

After the school-days of Ashby were ended, he settled on the paternal estate, and devoted himself to the pursuits and pleasures of the country in which he resided, avoiding, however, the dissipations too common among the young men of that day, but the foremost in all innocent sports, the first to get up tournaments and fox-chases, and almost always the successful competitor in all manly games. His public career may be dated from the time of the John Brown raid. When this monstrous invasion of his native State took place, Ashby, then Captain of a volunteer company of cavalry, summoned his men, and was among the first to hasten to Harper's Ferry. When this insurrection was subdued, he knew very well that the end had not yet come, and he continued to devote his time and means to the drilling and equipping of his company. When the State of Virginia seceded from the Union, and news came thereupon that the Federals had fired the armory at Harper's Ferry, Ashby was in the city of Richmond. He immediately started for his home, to summon his cavalry, and raise the standard of his insulted and outraged State. A neighbour and friend of his (Mr. H.) learning his arrival at

commander at Fort Loudoun. This official, of choleric disposition, upon the appearance of Ashby, broke out in severe reproach for his delay in proceeding on his mission, and was finally struck dumb with astonishment at the presentation of the governor's reply to the dispatch! The ride is said to have been accomplished in the shortest possible time, and the fact is certified in the records of Frederick county court.